my wife seems to be stretched to the max these days. she is doing good and her tum is getting bigger by the day. we found out that we are having a girl (katelyn marie), which we are really excited for. nothing else really to report on that front. she's pregnant and we are happy.
school sucks as usual. actually, i'm just not that interested in data comm. my telecom class has been really good, but i know the final is going to destroy me. i find it more and more difficult to wake up at 6 each day for class. only a few more weeks left for the semester, but i still have a paper, presentation, paper, lots of homework, a letter to write, and two finals.
next is the job situation. i am still working for hollywood video, probably the most hostile work environment i've ever been a part of. employees can't get along with other employees or customers for that matter. it's always a good time at 64th and sheridan. they want to make me a shift lead, which could be fun i suppose. there's nothing like a quarter raise. but i do get free rentals, which almost makes it all worth it. and actually, there are a few people there who i really enjoy working with. the only problem is that one quit two weeks ago and another is leaving in a week. so i guess that's out. we'll see how long i last here. i was also offered an internship this week for level3 in stinky broomfield. i can't say that i'm not excited for it. five days a week and anywhere from 20 - 40 hours a week, depending on school, etc. it should be fun, good opportunity, possibly a nice foot in the door, and almost three times as much as hollywood is paying. can't argue there. so, two jobs, school, and a pregnant wife equates to some interesting days ahead. free movie rentals don't mean much when there is no time to watch them.
my little sister has called off the called off wedding and is currently planning on getting married in june. my bro is just getting going on this season with his cycling. i don't know how he does it week after week. day after day for that matter. haven't heard from my other brother. i feel bad that i have no time to hang with him or even give him a call. a nice summer break from school will be nice. maybe we can get things going then. my sister in law is getting ready for college this fall, assuming she can get out of standley. my brother in law wants a sword, knife, and air guns for his birthday. tom is getting ready for life after college this summer, assuming he can get out of college. actually, he's all set to walk, so yea for t. that's all.
Trust the Man (2006): a relationship story about people our parent's age. it starts off with a pretty generic montage of nyc. thanks, but nyc intros have been done more than enough times. if you are going to do it then add some originality. the movie starts out with them just sitting around yakking about relationships and sex. sex and they city type boringness. garry shandling plays a pretty lame character. there is a really cool sex idea in the movie. check it out if porn is your thing (no nudity). it has funny moments, especially david duchovny, but it felt long. the only thing i got out of this movie was that guys suck at relationships. don't see.
poor effort, D+
Goodbye, Lenin! (2004): a pro-socialist mother from east germany has a ridiculous heart attack and goes into a coma prior to the berlin wall crumbling. after she finally wakes, communism is over and her stupid twenty-something year old son thinks he must protect her from the truth. thus, ridiculous lies begin in order to cover up why mcdonalds begin to pop up down the street. it starts off alright. i liked how they did the story of the son as a kid. there is maybe too much narration. some of the things he would do for his mom seemed a little far fetched. the lengths that this son would go through to keep the current events a secret from his mom were pretty unbelievable. the idea behind this story is cool, but they didn't go deep enough i felt. there was too much light heartedness, whereas it should have been more dramatic for everyone. by the time she discovers the lies that her son has been feeding her, she should have disowned him. it also seemed like the writers created medical conditions for her that were not plausible just so that she could die when needed or always be on the verge of death. didn't believe that stuff for a second. there was potential for an interesting story, but it fell flat. don't see.
disappointing, C-
The Number 23 (2007): jim carey finds a book that makes him go crazy for the number 23. he then goes on some mental quest to find its origins. i thought the introduction to the movie was pretty cool. it is obvious what they are going to do with this number, and what i'm sure jim carey will be doing can be done with any number by the way. there are two intertwining story lines that are going on, which is jim carey and his problems with the number, and then a story that he reads from the book. watching the book's story line was a lot like the gritty style of the video game max payne, making it cool to watch and well done, among other things. but it was so different than what was going on in his real life and the real plot, that it felt out of place in the movie. the movie was kind of boring and loses momentum at the end. although the end is surprising and the pieces are tied together fairly well, it still doesn't make up for some of the negative things about it. dont' see.
disappointing, C-
Premonition (2007): a lady wakes up one day and her husband has died, then the next day her husband is still alive, then dead, etc. basically, she is experiencing the present on one day and the future on another. i think. sandra b's character really handles herself well after she hears of his death. it could have been the shock i guess, but still. at the start of all the crazy crap happening with the days, i felt she didn't act in a reasonable manner. she never just sits down to talk to someone about these completely unexplainable things going on. sandra would never cry like a real wife would each time she would find out that her husband was really dead, then alive again, then dead again, etc. the whole puzzle to the story wasn't really complicated and was even less interesting. the mystery was lacking and if she just sat down to think about it, she could have worked out some of the pieces herself, instead of just waiting for stuff to happen. and i've seen enough six feet under to know that a severed head would not have just dumped out of a casket if it fell out of a hearse. that was so absurd. it was really confusing for the audience to keep track of which day it was and what day would come next. there seemed to be no pattern to the madness. my wife kim was trying to explain it all after the movie got out, but even then i was never satisfied with her take on the plot. there is some priest she goes to who randomly has a book of stories where people are going through exactly what she is having to experience. did he just conveniently pull this book out of his ass? and this priest was such a useless character if you ask me. he is just two minutes of inspirational garbage dialogue. why does sandra b smoke ciggs in two random scenes at the beginning, then never again in the movie? i think i noticed a few plot holes that i won't even try to explain. i'm sure the writers could sit down and map it all out for us, but movies shouldn't require that. audiences should not have to sit through multiple viewings in order to understand a plot, unless the ending of a movie changes the entire movie altogether. a quick example of this is obviously sixth sense or fight club. usually only then should a second viewing be recommended. some of the big revelations in the movie aren't all that surprising. if you are trying you can predict events of this movie usually about a minute before they happen, and sometimes even an hour before. the only good thing about this movie is the title and that you get to see feast your eyes on the beautiful sandra b for 2 hours. it was a valiant effort, but it sucked. i guess if you loved the lake house, you might like this also. otherwise, don't see.
an all time worst, F+
Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny (2006): two losers start a band and suck. so they go on a quest to find the guitar pick that will make them good. the beginning scenes with young JB and meatloaf are really good. the whole intro is basically a rock opera and ends up being actually quite good. couldn't say that for the rest of the movie though. the plot is weak and slow and usually dumb. the character's personalities were pretty inconsistent. at one point kyle acts like a nazi and the next he is a little bitch. a few of the songs are really funny. and usually ever 5 minutes or so i would let out a hearty laugh. all in all, it's a pretty big let down. i would must rather recommend their album from 5 or 6 years ago which this movie is loosely based on. go buy that instead. the movie passed the test, but barely. you know what they got? F plus. click. no not that bad.
dreadful, D
Reign Over Me (2007): done cheadle meets up with his long lost college roommate who has since gone crackers. the rest of the movie unravels the mystery behind sandler, his family, and video games. it starts off with a really good opening in the streets of nyc, but after that it is pretty slow until cheadle and sandler finally meet. the movie turns to gold any time cheadle and sandler interact. they really play off of each other well. in one shot when they are riding away on sandler's scooter like two little gay boys, you could clearly see another cameraman filming just up the street. the plot never really intensifies. sandler's character is crazy and throws tantrums from beginning to end, so it gets a tad old. and poor don cheadle is always trying hard to do the right thing, but ends up getting the shaft from everyone in the movie, even his own selfish wife. i didn't like any of the music. the movie is and feels pretty long. they could have definitely cut down some of the scenes. i'm no psychologists, but some of what sandler does is a little extreme. it is like they created a character with a mental illness and included extreme versions of every type of symptom possible. not saying that there aren't people out there like this, but they didn't have to put so much into it. and no reasonable girl like the one in the movie would ever go for sandler's character. sandler's crazy looks aside, the stuff that she sees him do and the brief time they knew each other would drive any girl away. unless she's also not completely mentally there. i guess it is a good look at how traumatic events in one's life (i.e. 9/11) can extremely alter someone's state of mind, but as far as entertainment value, cheadle is the only thing that holds this movie together. still not worth seeing though. see rain man or one flew over the cuckoo's nest instead.
mediocre, C
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
the bad father
you may have missed the gracious comment left on my blog a couple of weeks ago. well i am happy to bring it back for all three of you to read. and in case the anonymous chicken shit who wrote it happens to have anything else to say, by all means, the floor is yours.
prick says:
bad father says:
so that's that. the baby is doing good by the way. kim's been a little under the weather since cabo, but she's doing a ton better than when we were actually there. can anyone go to mexico these days without becoming terrible ill? it got scary. aside from that we road some 5 foot tall horses on the beach at sunset, went whale watching, stopped off at the hard rock, ate top notch food each night that was just mediocre, swam, tanned, and the best part, just lying in bed day and night with just the sound of crashing waves. this vacation was no st. thomas, but hell, it was still cabo. gracias kim and her work.
i am currently in the middle of a sopranos season 3 marathon today. and speaking of, kim is in jersey as i speak. i'm pissed off because i did poorly on my telecom systems midterm. before we left for the trip jamie and i did the spring challenge. we did alright i guess. worked our tails off, that's for sure. my econ professor wasn't a judge, but happened to be the guy watching the time for us. anyway, he asked some crappy question that i couldn't even begin to answer. where was my econ guy when i needed him? we were able to avoid it by stumbling our way through another question from one of the judge. either way, we had good reason to be proud of ourselves. national association of rural local exchange carriers (NARLEC) rules! glad that is out of the way though. huge relief.
enough chit chat. on to some movies.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969): a clint eastwood clone helps out a lady. the opening sequence is slightly long, but really cool. tons of buildup. the first half of the film is just introductions to the many subplots, but there seemed to be little connection between any of them. there are some really beautiful shots of landscapes. it's all desert of course, but lovely nonetheless. or just go drive through utah if you want to see it all. there is a lot of silence in the movie. henry fonda played the part of the main character and it was way too much like clint eastwood's older stuff. it felt like fonda's role was written for the great mr. eastwood, but he must have turned it down to sing in paint your wagon and leone just settled for fonda. for me it felt like watching a nosey private eye trying to pull off "the man with no name." the whole movie was too much what clint and sergio were able to pull off five years prior, only without all the style. the music, huge shots, forever long close-ups, and long pauses had all been done. they brought nothing new to the table except a bad clint eastwood knockoff. the plot was not explained very well, i was getting mixed up on characters, and the movie is way too long (2.5+ hours). it's okay but nowhere near the man's stuff.
poor effort, D+
Seraphim Falls (2007): a guy and his posse go on a never ending chase of another guy for reasons unknown, across the post-civil war western u.s. pierce brosnan is really good and is the guy being chased. you really feel for him while these guys hunt him down. the movie jumps right into the character's story, so there is never a chance to actually get to know anyone. it actually took a while before any back story is given about why he is being chased in the first place. i found it somewhat hard to believe that remington steele could outrun (literally just running) these guys on horses for days. the plot is pretty thin. a ton of horses die all throughout the movie so that was a little disturbing. also disturbing is the fact that two brit actors are playing the roles of two u.s. civil war vets in the old west. the movie was pretty cool at the end i guess. the things that these two guys will do to kill the other one is nuts. the picture was a little grainy, adding to the feel of the mid-1800s, however it was maybe a little too much. eh, not bad.
mediocre, C
Gummo (1997): two boys grow up in hickville and make an earning collecting dead cats to sell to the china man. the opening tornado scenes are good. nice narration too. you could sum of the plot as simply dramatic white trash. it is hard to tell if these are actors or if half of it was a documentary. there is a really funny scene where some cowboys kill some queer rabbit. and add xenia, ohio to the cities to never visit. there is some pretty crazy stuff going on there; controversial and way dysfunctional. the boys provide the narration for the movie, but as their older selves. and juxtaposed is documentary-like snippets of the town's extreme hillbilliness. it's all really unique filmmaking i thought. good kid actors. or just the real thing. who knows? on the negative side, the plot was weak and few characters actually did anything. other than that it was, um, unique. interesting, maybe. see it.
fair, B-
prick says:
"HOW IS IT THAT YOU ONLY MENTION YOUR UPCOMING CHILD FOR A FEW SENTENCES IN THE MIDDLE OF A PARAGRAPH, AND RAMBLE ON ABOUT NOTHING FOR THE REST. ARE YOU SURE YOUR READY TO BE A FATHER?"
bad father says:
"because by the time i had written it, we had already known that we were having a baby for weeks. our initial excitement had passed by this time. the other stuff i mentioned happened to be going on that second.
and me not going into detail about our unborn child on a blog that maybe five people in the world read, has no correlation whatsoever about whether or not i'm ready to be a father. check your logic next time you question me. and who knows if i'm ready to be a father. who knows if kim is ready to be a mom. who knows if anyone is when that time comes. doesn't change anything though. i'm still going to be a father and will do the best that i can. thanks for the support though.
and if you are going to comment or talk to someone online, most people don't use all caps. this is just one of the more common rules of etiquette when writing online. good day. "
so that's that. the baby is doing good by the way. kim's been a little under the weather since cabo, but she's doing a ton better than when we were actually there. can anyone go to mexico these days without becoming terrible ill? it got scary. aside from that we road some 5 foot tall horses on the beach at sunset, went whale watching, stopped off at the hard rock, ate top notch food each night that was just mediocre, swam, tanned, and the best part, just lying in bed day and night with just the sound of crashing waves. this vacation was no st. thomas, but hell, it was still cabo. gracias kim and her work.
i am currently in the middle of a sopranos season 3 marathon today. and speaking of, kim is in jersey as i speak. i'm pissed off because i did poorly on my telecom systems midterm. before we left for the trip jamie and i did the spring challenge. we did alright i guess. worked our tails off, that's for sure. my econ professor wasn't a judge, but happened to be the guy watching the time for us. anyway, he asked some crappy question that i couldn't even begin to answer. where was my econ guy when i needed him? we were able to avoid it by stumbling our way through another question from one of the judge. either way, we had good reason to be proud of ourselves. national association of rural local exchange carriers (NARLEC) rules! glad that is out of the way though. huge relief.
enough chit chat. on to some movies.
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969): a clint eastwood clone helps out a lady. the opening sequence is slightly long, but really cool. tons of buildup. the first half of the film is just introductions to the many subplots, but there seemed to be little connection between any of them. there are some really beautiful shots of landscapes. it's all desert of course, but lovely nonetheless. or just go drive through utah if you want to see it all. there is a lot of silence in the movie. henry fonda played the part of the main character and it was way too much like clint eastwood's older stuff. it felt like fonda's role was written for the great mr. eastwood, but he must have turned it down to sing in paint your wagon and leone just settled for fonda. for me it felt like watching a nosey private eye trying to pull off "the man with no name." the whole movie was too much what clint and sergio were able to pull off five years prior, only without all the style. the music, huge shots, forever long close-ups, and long pauses had all been done. they brought nothing new to the table except a bad clint eastwood knockoff. the plot was not explained very well, i was getting mixed up on characters, and the movie is way too long (2.5+ hours). it's okay but nowhere near the man's stuff.
poor effort, D+
Seraphim Falls (2007): a guy and his posse go on a never ending chase of another guy for reasons unknown, across the post-civil war western u.s. pierce brosnan is really good and is the guy being chased. you really feel for him while these guys hunt him down. the movie jumps right into the character's story, so there is never a chance to actually get to know anyone. it actually took a while before any back story is given about why he is being chased in the first place. i found it somewhat hard to believe that remington steele could outrun (literally just running) these guys on horses for days. the plot is pretty thin. a ton of horses die all throughout the movie so that was a little disturbing. also disturbing is the fact that two brit actors are playing the roles of two u.s. civil war vets in the old west. the movie was pretty cool at the end i guess. the things that these two guys will do to kill the other one is nuts. the picture was a little grainy, adding to the feel of the mid-1800s, however it was maybe a little too much. eh, not bad.
mediocre, C
Gummo (1997): two boys grow up in hickville and make an earning collecting dead cats to sell to the china man. the opening tornado scenes are good. nice narration too. you could sum of the plot as simply dramatic white trash. it is hard to tell if these are actors or if half of it was a documentary. there is a really funny scene where some cowboys kill some queer rabbit. and add xenia, ohio to the cities to never visit. there is some pretty crazy stuff going on there; controversial and way dysfunctional. the boys provide the narration for the movie, but as their older selves. and juxtaposed is documentary-like snippets of the town's extreme hillbilliness. it's all really unique filmmaking i thought. good kid actors. or just the real thing. who knows? on the negative side, the plot was weak and few characters actually did anything. other than that it was, um, unique. interesting, maybe. see it.
fair, B-
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
the top ten movies of 2006
the spring challenge was today but i'm just too exhausted to care. it went good though. didn't make it to the finals, but we got close. but it's over and you gotta love that. but there is no end in sight to the piles of homework and reading and exams this coming week. yeah, the same week i will be snorkling with the fishees. tomorrow we have a 830 am flight to cabo. enjoy the oscars.
10. Letters from Iwo Jima
9. The Queen
8. Silent Hill
7. Pan's Labyrinth
6. The Da Vinci Code
5. The Fountain
4. Inside Man
3. Miami Vice
2. Borat
1. Apocalypto
and a few honorable mentions:
blood diamond
the prestige
jackass: number two
and the nominees who should win on sunday:
picture: the departed
directing: clint
actor: leo - blood diamond
supporting actor: djimon hounsou - blood diamond
actress: helen mirren - the queen
supporting actress: abigail breslin - little miss sunshine
film editing: the departed
sound editing: letters from iwo jima
animated feature: monster house
foreign language: pan's labyrinth
sound mixing: pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
visual effects: pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
adapted screenplay: borat
art direction: pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
makeup: apocalypto
original score: pan's labyrinth
original screenplay: the queen
original song: "i need to wake up" - an inconvenient truth
cinematography: pan's labyrinth
costume design: the queen
see ya in a week. hopefully with a tan.
10. Letters from Iwo Jima
9. The Queen
8. Silent Hill
7. Pan's Labyrinth
6. The Da Vinci Code
5. The Fountain
4. Inside Man
3. Miami Vice
2. Borat
1. Apocalypto
and a few honorable mentions:
blood diamond
the prestige
jackass: number two
and the nominees who should win on sunday:
picture: the departed
directing: clint
actor: leo - blood diamond
supporting actor: djimon hounsou - blood diamond
actress: helen mirren - the queen
supporting actress: abigail breslin - little miss sunshine
film editing: the departed
sound editing: letters from iwo jima
animated feature: monster house
foreign language: pan's labyrinth
sound mixing: pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
visual effects: pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
adapted screenplay: borat
art direction: pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
makeup: apocalypto
original score: pan's labyrinth
original screenplay: the queen
original song: "i need to wake up" - an inconvenient truth
cinematography: pan's labyrinth
costume design: the queen
see ya in a week. hopefully with a tan.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
the news all around
congrats to tabitha on getting married tomorrow! i'm really happy for her and it sucks i couldn't go out there for it. school is just a beast right now.
i'll give a little rundown of what is currently occupying 80 percent of my time these days. first and foremost is the spring challenge which is next saturday. my partner is jamie and we have to spit out a 5-7 page paper, prepare a 15 minute presentation with powerpoint of course, and present to a number of consulting firm guys/gals. the topic is if we should go to reverse auctions to provide service to high cost subscribers (i.e. rural folk). currently high cost subscribers are subsidized by the universal service fund (go check out your phone bill). this money is given out to carriers based on their cost to provide rural service. but the amount of money required to continue the program is skyrocketing out of control because of competitive eligible telecom carriers, such as wireless providers, coming into rural areas and taking all of the USF money. the reverse auction proposal is simply to replace the existing program with a system that will choose a single carrier for a given area based on whoever can provide service for the lowest cost. jamie and i are representing the rural incumbent local exchange carriers and must (in a nutshell) say whether reverse auctions are a good idea or not. anyway, we have a freaking week to accomplish all of this. currently we are in the research stage and have to sift through probably a couple hundred pages of FCC documents, background info, etc. so that is next saturday.
the very next day kim and i leave for cabo. while in cabo i will probably be working on a data comm take-home midterm. before that though we have our first lab in telecom systems this coming week. it will be really good i'm sure, but there is a lab write up and lots of busy work that will go with it. typical lab i guess. then i have usual homework due each week and reading that i never seem to be caught up with. grad school is difficult.
my days are really packed. i'd say a rough estimate might be about 15 hours a week spent on each class. then i have guitar here and there, movies, taking the bus to school and back each day which takes anywhere from 45 to 1+ hour to get there. and boulder is like a 15 minute car ride from our place. what else. my mom is in town for a week watching my little bro while his dads are out doing whatever it is that two dads do. i actually don't even want to know. i'm out of my sweet and spicy bbq sauce that i get from this restaurant called goodwood in orem, ut. so that irritates me. i'm even out of jellybeans/theater tix. no time for wfmu, no time to clean the house, no time to run errands. and i really have no time to write people back. somehow i always have about 10 emails that i have to reply to. friends in ut, ca, wa, va, and here all have to wait at least a month before ever getting a response from me. i wish it wasn't this way though. i feel like the only person who has this problem. and we are having a baby.
the baby is due in august. we don't know the gender but have names picked out. katelyn marie and jack allen. i think. subject to change of course. we are totally thrilled. thrilled for tom too. they are having little madison in about a week and a half. it's all very exciting times for us all. scary, but exciting. so that is that.
a couple more things. are you still mourning the loss of anna nicole? it is hard to believe how much attention she is still getting. and finally, someday i think genealogy will be somewhat good enough to be able to search an online database and see how i am related to, say, the president, or dr. seuss. or anyone. you get the point. anyway, someday.
Smokin' Aces (2007): tons of guys are out to kill buddy aces for $1m in bounty before he testifies against la costa nostra. the first three scenes are ten minutes of semi-big actors standing around giving tons and tons of back story. and introducing lots of crazy characters. they did well at giving the viewers friendly reminders of all the back-story. otherwise the audience would have forgotten what anyone was doing. and introducing each character with a title such as "hitman" or "ex-cop" really helped to sort everyone out. ben affleck plays a potential assassin and has the scene of his career playing a dead guy. there is some good dialogue here and there. ryan reynolds and ray liotta were for sure the stars of this show. both had really solid performances. mtv movie award worthy. the second half of the movie was good because it was always a mystery about who would kill aces or if he would even die. the end is a blood bath so be ready for it. it is for sure worth seeing and out of all the post-pulp fiction crime movies like this, this one is surprisingly better than most. might be worth buying sometime down the road.
good, B
Pan's Labyrinth (2006): during a spanish civil war a little girl and her mother, con niño, go to the general's house for the summer. there's a big labyrinth that she hangs around in. it's basically a new take on alice in wonderland. a rated r alice in wonderland that is. and actually, it's not too rated r, but just very dark i'd say. this girl is a really good, good actress. and the character she plays is some kind of brave. you never know if the kid is really experiences all of this craziness or if she is just delusional. the frog sequence is so nasty. so nasty i say. but has really good special effects for once. and there is definitely more than one really gross moment in the movie. she goes through some really crazy stuff. this movie gets intense and scary. tom probably wouldn't like the scary parts. i'm not sure who plays the ruthless general in charge of everyone, but he is really amazing at playing a devil of a person. it would be hard to watch over and over again. but once is for sure recommended to all. possibly buy it.
memorable, B+
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006): ken watanabe is the army general i think and has an amazing on screen presence as usual. the story starts off like there are a few dozen guys who have to get ready for the entire u.s. military to attack and kill them on their crappy island. but i thought iwo jima was a pretty significant battle. the story is really about how these guys spend these days which they know will be their last. they only seemed to focus briefly on why the island was so important to defend. but i guess it got to a point where the reasons why didn't matter and what did matter was just to try and live for at least another ten minutes. the sound was really incredible i thought. it's loud, crisp, and lots of detail went into adding and mixing up the sounds. it should win in the sound editing category. i think eastwood is really going to come away a big winner at the oscars. this guy never quits. there was a scene when the battleships are just ripping the island to shreds while this one japanese soldier struggles for five minutes to pick up the can of crap he dropped (he was on doodie duty). there are many moments like this scattered throughout the film and it really helps to make the movie bearable. from start to finish it is pretty violent, even more so than saving ryan's privates i thought. this year was certainly an extra bloody year for movies. half the movie i would hear the americans bombing but i wasn't sure who they were shooting at. i only saw maybe thirty japanese soldiers from start to finish. they should have established at the beginning that there were many more japanese on the island. the end was really touching when they all react reading this u.s. soldier's letter from his mom. the movie is long and feels long. more than enough times i would get a few of the characters completely mixed up. it's a really good wwii movie, but there is just so much death. not just in the scenes with guys blowing themselves up, but it was like the theme of the movie. see it.
memorable, B+
Quinceañera (2006): magdalena has enough pressure trying to plan a big quinceañera and be like her rich friends, but then she decides to get preggers. i guess it wasn't really her decision. and her gangster cousin is gay. i liked how the people would go back and forth between english and spanish, depending on the character. this is probably the first mexican-american movie i've seen. some of the acting was fake but there was a lot of really good dialogue scattered here and there. it felt pointless for a good part of the movie. like five minutes of gay party shots(?). other times it could get pretty boring. never really builds up to anything. don't see.
disappointing, C-
The Queen (2006): the queen of england must face her country after the death of princess diana. i liked the glaring opening stare from the queen. the cuts between all the characters during the events of princess diana's death were very well done. the actors who play these super-power people in britain all do so good. but it's hard to know if this is how all the people really behave. i mean, who knows if the queen really felt so put off by diana; dead or alive. who knows if they just let the queen of england try and drive her land rover by herself through some river. i liked the allegory between diana and the stag that the royal family was trying to hunt the whole time on their property. i enjoyed the relationship between the queen and tony blair. most of the royals' acting was superb and deserved some supporting actor nominations. some of scenes are eerie, like how diana always seemed to be haunting the queen. very realistic. and sad too. the movie is not as dry as you would think. it is very witty which makes it easier to watch despite the bland subject matter. of course it is not the most exciting movie ever, but it is well done enough to keep you interested. awesome cast, perfect locations, very effective soundtrack, worth seeing.
memorable, B+
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): the opening shots are all these scenes of the universe (klaatu flying to earth i presume) and the effects are really believable. especially for the time. and wow. so much of washington dc was used in this movie. i can't imagine someone today being able to pull that off. they jump immediately into the action and i felt as if i couldn't look away. michael rennie who plays the space man does really good. and the secretary of state who first talks with klaatu does awesome. not including that guy, but some of how the government responds to the alien is pretty unbelievable. then again it was the 50s. you want to believe that this was just how things were back then with all the paranoia. or is it just a bad script? you could take this movie and say that it is a take on society, or government, or early mccarthyism, or that wendy's shouldn't have gotten rid of their jalapeño cheddar melt. you could interpret so much from this movie, that it would be interesting to see what the filmaker's real intent was. it could have just been to make a sci-fi movie. who knows. most of the time that klaatu is on earth, he is talking about how he wants to warn earthlings of something really important. this ends up being a mcguffin because the story ends up being more about his treatment by us earthlings. his message basically ends up being, "don't be putting missles or any such things in space. otherwise we aliens will blow up your planet." the problem is that everyone is too afraid of him to listen. it is a pretty good story and worthy of a remake. see it. on a lame side note, it won a golden globe for "best motion picture promoting international understanding." they gave awards out for everything back then.
flaw but worth seeing, C+
coming soon: top ten movies of 2006. just in time for the oscars which i will be missing to be in mexico. i will hopefully have it recorded and i'll watch when i get home. later.
i'll give a little rundown of what is currently occupying 80 percent of my time these days. first and foremost is the spring challenge which is next saturday. my partner is jamie and we have to spit out a 5-7 page paper, prepare a 15 minute presentation with powerpoint of course, and present to a number of consulting firm guys/gals. the topic is if we should go to reverse auctions to provide service to high cost subscribers (i.e. rural folk). currently high cost subscribers are subsidized by the universal service fund (go check out your phone bill). this money is given out to carriers based on their cost to provide rural service. but the amount of money required to continue the program is skyrocketing out of control because of competitive eligible telecom carriers, such as wireless providers, coming into rural areas and taking all of the USF money. the reverse auction proposal is simply to replace the existing program with a system that will choose a single carrier for a given area based on whoever can provide service for the lowest cost. jamie and i are representing the rural incumbent local exchange carriers and must (in a nutshell) say whether reverse auctions are a good idea or not. anyway, we have a freaking week to accomplish all of this. currently we are in the research stage and have to sift through probably a couple hundred pages of FCC documents, background info, etc. so that is next saturday.
the very next day kim and i leave for cabo. while in cabo i will probably be working on a data comm take-home midterm. before that though we have our first lab in telecom systems this coming week. it will be really good i'm sure, but there is a lab write up and lots of busy work that will go with it. typical lab i guess. then i have usual homework due each week and reading that i never seem to be caught up with. grad school is difficult.
my days are really packed. i'd say a rough estimate might be about 15 hours a week spent on each class. then i have guitar here and there, movies, taking the bus to school and back each day which takes anywhere from 45 to 1+ hour to get there. and boulder is like a 15 minute car ride from our place. what else. my mom is in town for a week watching my little bro while his dads are out doing whatever it is that two dads do. i actually don't even want to know. i'm out of my sweet and spicy bbq sauce that i get from this restaurant called goodwood in orem, ut. so that irritates me. i'm even out of jellybeans/theater tix. no time for wfmu, no time to clean the house, no time to run errands. and i really have no time to write people back. somehow i always have about 10 emails that i have to reply to. friends in ut, ca, wa, va, and here all have to wait at least a month before ever getting a response from me. i wish it wasn't this way though. i feel like the only person who has this problem. and we are having a baby.
the baby is due in august. we don't know the gender but have names picked out. katelyn marie and jack allen. i think. subject to change of course. we are totally thrilled. thrilled for tom too. they are having little madison in about a week and a half. it's all very exciting times for us all. scary, but exciting. so that is that.
a couple more things. are you still mourning the loss of anna nicole? it is hard to believe how much attention she is still getting. and finally, someday i think genealogy will be somewhat good enough to be able to search an online database and see how i am related to, say, the president, or dr. seuss. or anyone. you get the point. anyway, someday.
Smokin' Aces (2007): tons of guys are out to kill buddy aces for $1m in bounty before he testifies against la costa nostra. the first three scenes are ten minutes of semi-big actors standing around giving tons and tons of back story. and introducing lots of crazy characters. they did well at giving the viewers friendly reminders of all the back-story. otherwise the audience would have forgotten what anyone was doing. and introducing each character with a title such as "hitman" or "ex-cop" really helped to sort everyone out. ben affleck plays a potential assassin and has the scene of his career playing a dead guy. there is some good dialogue here and there. ryan reynolds and ray liotta were for sure the stars of this show. both had really solid performances. mtv movie award worthy. the second half of the movie was good because it was always a mystery about who would kill aces or if he would even die. the end is a blood bath so be ready for it. it is for sure worth seeing and out of all the post-pulp fiction crime movies like this, this one is surprisingly better than most. might be worth buying sometime down the road.
good, B
Pan's Labyrinth (2006): during a spanish civil war a little girl and her mother, con niño, go to the general's house for the summer. there's a big labyrinth that she hangs around in. it's basically a new take on alice in wonderland. a rated r alice in wonderland that is. and actually, it's not too rated r, but just very dark i'd say. this girl is a really good, good actress. and the character she plays is some kind of brave. you never know if the kid is really experiences all of this craziness or if she is just delusional. the frog sequence is so nasty. so nasty i say. but has really good special effects for once. and there is definitely more than one really gross moment in the movie. she goes through some really crazy stuff. this movie gets intense and scary. tom probably wouldn't like the scary parts. i'm not sure who plays the ruthless general in charge of everyone, but he is really amazing at playing a devil of a person. it would be hard to watch over and over again. but once is for sure recommended to all. possibly buy it.
memorable, B+
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006): ken watanabe is the army general i think and has an amazing on screen presence as usual. the story starts off like there are a few dozen guys who have to get ready for the entire u.s. military to attack and kill them on their crappy island. but i thought iwo jima was a pretty significant battle. the story is really about how these guys spend these days which they know will be their last. they only seemed to focus briefly on why the island was so important to defend. but i guess it got to a point where the reasons why didn't matter and what did matter was just to try and live for at least another ten minutes. the sound was really incredible i thought. it's loud, crisp, and lots of detail went into adding and mixing up the sounds. it should win in the sound editing category. i think eastwood is really going to come away a big winner at the oscars. this guy never quits. there was a scene when the battleships are just ripping the island to shreds while this one japanese soldier struggles for five minutes to pick up the can of crap he dropped (he was on doodie duty). there are many moments like this scattered throughout the film and it really helps to make the movie bearable. from start to finish it is pretty violent, even more so than saving ryan's privates i thought. this year was certainly an extra bloody year for movies. half the movie i would hear the americans bombing but i wasn't sure who they were shooting at. i only saw maybe thirty japanese soldiers from start to finish. they should have established at the beginning that there were many more japanese on the island. the end was really touching when they all react reading this u.s. soldier's letter from his mom. the movie is long and feels long. more than enough times i would get a few of the characters completely mixed up. it's a really good wwii movie, but there is just so much death. not just in the scenes with guys blowing themselves up, but it was like the theme of the movie. see it.
memorable, B+
Quinceañera (2006): magdalena has enough pressure trying to plan a big quinceañera and be like her rich friends, but then she decides to get preggers. i guess it wasn't really her decision. and her gangster cousin is gay. i liked how the people would go back and forth between english and spanish, depending on the character. this is probably the first mexican-american movie i've seen. some of the acting was fake but there was a lot of really good dialogue scattered here and there. it felt pointless for a good part of the movie. like five minutes of gay party shots(?). other times it could get pretty boring. never really builds up to anything. don't see.
disappointing, C-
The Queen (2006): the queen of england must face her country after the death of princess diana. i liked the glaring opening stare from the queen. the cuts between all the characters during the events of princess diana's death were very well done. the actors who play these super-power people in britain all do so good. but it's hard to know if this is how all the people really behave. i mean, who knows if the queen really felt so put off by diana; dead or alive. who knows if they just let the queen of england try and drive her land rover by herself through some river. i liked the allegory between diana and the stag that the royal family was trying to hunt the whole time on their property. i enjoyed the relationship between the queen and tony blair. most of the royals' acting was superb and deserved some supporting actor nominations. some of scenes are eerie, like how diana always seemed to be haunting the queen. very realistic. and sad too. the movie is not as dry as you would think. it is very witty which makes it easier to watch despite the bland subject matter. of course it is not the most exciting movie ever, but it is well done enough to keep you interested. awesome cast, perfect locations, very effective soundtrack, worth seeing.
memorable, B+
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): the opening shots are all these scenes of the universe (klaatu flying to earth i presume) and the effects are really believable. especially for the time. and wow. so much of washington dc was used in this movie. i can't imagine someone today being able to pull that off. they jump immediately into the action and i felt as if i couldn't look away. michael rennie who plays the space man does really good. and the secretary of state who first talks with klaatu does awesome. not including that guy, but some of how the government responds to the alien is pretty unbelievable. then again it was the 50s. you want to believe that this was just how things were back then with all the paranoia. or is it just a bad script? you could take this movie and say that it is a take on society, or government, or early mccarthyism, or that wendy's shouldn't have gotten rid of their jalapeño cheddar melt. you could interpret so much from this movie, that it would be interesting to see what the filmaker's real intent was. it could have just been to make a sci-fi movie. who knows. most of the time that klaatu is on earth, he is talking about how he wants to warn earthlings of something really important. this ends up being a mcguffin because the story ends up being more about his treatment by us earthlings. his message basically ends up being, "don't be putting missles or any such things in space. otherwise we aliens will blow up your planet." the problem is that everyone is too afraid of him to listen. it is a pretty good story and worthy of a remake. see it. on a lame side note, it won a golden globe for "best motion picture promoting international understanding." they gave awards out for everything back then.
flaw but worth seeing, C+
coming soon: top ten movies of 2006. just in time for the oscars which i will be missing to be in mexico. i will hopefully have it recorded and i'll watch when i get home. later.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
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